Section A
ANNUAL REPORT 2017
ANNUAL REPORT 2017
This report consists of:
Section A Chairperson’s Report
Section B Treasurer’s Report
Section C Project Co-ordinator’s Report
Section D Development Co-ordinator’s Report
Section E Committee Members from 26th June 2017
Section F Minutes of AGM / Public Meeting 26th June 2017
Section A
Chairperson’s Annual Report
Good afternoon, a very warm welcome and thank you for coming.
I began last year’s report detailing question marks over premises and funding. With many thanks to Eric Blyth, Practice and Business Manager, we are now happily settled in Monifieth Health Centre. Our worries about funding too have eased, at least temporarily, thanks to awards from the Big Lottery and others. Maggie will give the Award details in her report.
As Chair, I’m delighted that, for the next 3 years, we can plan ahead again, but very conscious that we have to keep looking to future funding. We are not alone in this of course. All voluntary and many statutory, organisations share the uncertainty. We’re grateful that Gary Malone, CEO of Voluntary Action Angus has again ensured that we receive some local authority core funding. Gary always finds time to listen when we need information and we value his advice and support.
MBS is very fortunate to have a great deal of local support. Our local MSP Graeme Dey, Monifieth and District Rotary Club, who make Christmas special for us, Monifieth Parish Church, who gave us a home for so many years and had a retiring collection for us at Easter. Monifieth High School, Tesco Monifieth, the Co-op who made us one of the beneficiaries of their local Community Fund and many very generous local businesses. Let’s not forget too, the many artists who give their time so generously to entertain us at our social events.
Our biggest asset of course is our fantastic band of volunteers. Not only do they provide friendship for our members, they bake for our social occasions, they help with our fund raising, contribute to all our awareness raising events and support MBS in so many ways. To you, as ever, a very sincere thank you from Lindsey, Pauline, Gail and the management committee.
We were very saddened this year by the sudden death of Ritchie Harper. A long-time volunteer and good friend to MBS. He will be much missed.
As always, some volunteers have had to leave us for a variety of reasons. They go with our best wishes and our grateful thanks for all they have done for MBS.
We warmly welcome our new volunteers and look forward to getting to know them.
We were all delighted when Brenda Wilson, one of our volunteers and a committee member, was awarded the Health and Social Care award for outstanding commitment, by Voluntary Action Angus. Brenda does a huge amount of work for MBS and the award was richly deserved. The Evaluation report you can see is mostly Brenda’s excellent work.
We lost a valued member of the Management committee this year when Bruce Anderson left the area. Bruce did a huge amount of work on our successful award applications and we’ll miss his expertise, his humour and his wise counsel. Fortunately, two people have expressed a willingness to join the committee and we look forward to that.
One of the financial awards we received has enabled us to employ Gail Hill as Admin Assistant. Gail comes with a wealth of experience and already feels like one of the family.
A psychologist said recently, “Friendship is a lot like food, we need it to survive.” So please, if you have a little time to spare, consider becoming a befriender or a committee member. New people bring new ideas and fresh input, valuable assets to any organisation.
Volunteers give their time in order to help others, but there is a secondary benefit – volunteering is good for you. Making new friends, learning new skills and knowing that you’re making a difference is life enhancing.
The glue which holds MBS together is Lindsey and Pauline, they work tirelessly to ensure that befrienders and befriended are happy and inspired. And every year they develop new ways to enhance the service MBS provides. An increasing need for MBS means that their workload grows each year. So, we on the Management Committee do our best to ensure they have the tools they need to do the job.
So, to finish, my grateful thanks to the Management Committee, who also give time and talent so generously and especially to Maggie our Treasurer and Derick her right-hand man. Their task, this year, has been extremely taxing and it’s thanks to their expertise that we are able to look to the future with some confidence.
I have used the word support many times in this report and I make no apologies for that. It’s enabled us to still be here in our 18th year. So, thank you too for your support in coming today and helping MBS continue to provide friendship to the lonely and socially isolated in Monifieth. As the journalist J. M. Robertson said, “The finest ship to sail the sea of life is Friendship.”
Norma Holmes
Section B
Treasurer’s Annual Report
Hello everybody
After the last AGM, I took over as Treasurer from Derick who has served you well over the years and on a personal note I would like to take this opportunity to thank him for all his help, support and guidance given to me during this past year and hope it will continue in the future also to the management committee for their help which is very much appreciated by me.
When I took over we were in anxious period as we could only fund another year so a solution had to be found quickly. As Norma has mentioned earlier I will try and explain a little bit about our three sponsors who are: -
The Henry Duncan award who granted us £5000 for 1 year which we are using to fund a new Admin Assistant post that has been filled by Gail who seems to be fitting in rather well.
The Big Lottery Fund who granted us £30,000 per year for 5 years.
The Robertson Trust who granted us £15,000 per year for 3 years.
The acquiring of the three sponsors were due to Bruce who has unfortunately moved away and Derick for the enormous amount of effort they put into this venture. Their determination and perseverance paid off and we owe them a debt of gratitude for obtaining this funding.
All these awards require us to demonstrate how we are using their money to make improvements for the benefit of the Befrienders. These criteria must be adhered to, so it will be discussed within the management team later as to the best to answer all the relevant points raised by them. As well as these awards, we are very grateful to Angus Health and Social Care for their continuing support to us which is much appreciated in this time of austerity.
We do from time to time receive donations from other sources including Monifieth Parish Church’s retiring offerings, Monifieth Rotary, Monifieth Lunch Club, Monifieth High School, Safari meeting of the three denomination churches of Monifieth, Shell, Farmfoods, University of Dundee, JustGiving, and many more individuals. This all goes to help towards funding social events and on that subject my thanks to volunteers and clients who have put money in the donation boxes at these events which we recently introduced. There is no pressure on anyone to donate but the results so far have been most encouraging.
The balance sheet which I hope the majority of you have seen is self-explanatory and I do not want to bore you by going into all the details, so I will simply say: -
Start of the year April 2016 £35,498.27
Income received during year +£47,193.45
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Total for the year 2016/17 £82,691.72
Expenditure for Year - £42,692.23
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Balance at end of Year £39,999.49
Plus uncashed cheques + £465.00
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TOTAL YEAR END £40,464.49
March 2017 ------
Balance in the bank to be carried forward for year 2017/18 £40,464.49
As you can see we carried forward a substantial figure and with our other funding we are in a healthy financial position to look forward to the future and hope we can continue in this vein with a good result from our coffee morning in September. We realised the sum of £2265.00. last year which is an astonishing amount to achieve in such a short space of time, so thanks to all the volunteers, clients and many people who helped at this venture. I know a lot of hard work and effort went into this appeal and I must mention the staff of Tesco’s who helped prior to the day by selling raffle tickets at the store so our thanks go to all concerned.
When this kind of leverage we can now safely plan ahead to expand our horizons for the benefit of the community. After all that is what we are about, so best foot forward and put your thinking caps on about ways we can promote our scheme and expand our profile in the community.
Also during the course of the year, we were fortunate to be one of four charities selected by the Co-operative Local Community Fund. This plan was anybody with a co-op card could select the charity of their choice to support. So far, we have been successful with donations and thanks must go to many unknown people who made this happen but the outcome will not be reflected until next year’s figures.
This year we are one of three charities short listed by Sainsbury’s for a similar project. To vote for us this has to be done on line (very easy to do even I managed it). The closing date is 10th July so please tell your family, friends and neighbours to get voting and here’s hoping we stand a chance of being chosen as their Charity of the Year. The principal seems to be collection tins will be placed at each checkout to use when you are in the store.
I intend to do my utmost to keep us in the black and will work tirelessly to achieving that aim. Thank you for your time and patience listening to me and I hope I haven’t bored you with all the statistics. Should anyone have any questions I will do my best to answer them.
Maggie Gray
Section C
Project Co-ordinator’s Annual Report
Good afternoon
It is a privilege to stand here and give my report. I have been employed with Monifieth Befriending Scheme for over 13 years and enjoy my role as Project Co-ordinator. Our organisation has gone from strength to strength over the years and we have become a vital part of a community where people are supported through befriending to build confidence and improve quality of life by reducing loneliness.Loneliness has a huge impact not only on the health and wellbeing of the individual concerned but can also put a demand on other services. We must therefore, not underestimate the importance of befriending. Of course, this service could not be provided without our valued and committed team of volunteers which includes Management Committee and Befrienders. The Management Committee’s work can sometimes seem go unnoticed but they work very hard ensuring that our organisation is run efficiently and I am thankful to them all for their guidance and support. The befrienders provide friendship and companionship to their clients but many of them do so much more. They all truly enhance the lives of their clients. Here are a few recent comments from clients about their befrienders:
v My befriender is like the Grandson I never had
v We always have a laugh together.
v My befriender brightens up my life.
v I look forward to seeing my befriender and I enjoy the outings we have together.
These comments are priceless especially as our befrienders often say they aren’t doing anything special! Thank you all so much.
We currently have 37 clients successfully partnered with adult befrienders. Some of our befrienders have more than one client and we also have a couple of supply befrienders who will visit clients when their regular befriender is on holiday or ill.
We continue to have a steady stream of new befrienders and I am always amazed at how well they settle in and how quickly they become part of the team. We have a ‘buddy’ system where new befrienders are partnered with an experienced befriender. The buddies help the new befriender settle into their role and offer advice if needed.
Some of our volunteers offer more of their time to help us with fundraising and promotion. We couldn’t have done our recent fundraising or promotional events without them and their home-baking is amazing! Their enthusiasm and dedication is heart-warming.
There is always a demand for our service and we are always looking for new befrienders. All our befrienders are reference checked, are members ofthe PVG (Protection of Vulnerable Groups) scheme and receive training before being introduced to a suitable client. Our befrienders usually see their client for a couple of hours each week at home or go out with them. People waiting for our service are invited along to our social events, which Pauline will tell you more about.